Systems, devices, and/or methods for managing energy usage

Abstract

Certain exemplary embodiments can provide a system, machine, device, manufacture, circuit, and/or user interface adapted for, and/or a method and/or machine-readable medium comprising machine-implementable instructions for, activities that can comprise, based on a predicted non-zero future power requirement for performing one or more portions of an expected workload by a predetermined system, the predicted future power requirement based on a past power requirement for performing one or more portions of a known workload by the predetermined system, automatically causing a change from a first power state of the predetermined system to a second power state that does not violate a specification for performing the one or more portions of the expected workload.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method comprising:
 via a predetermined processor:
 based on a predicted non-zero future power requirement for performing one or more portions of an expected workload by a predetermined system, said predicted future power requirement based on a past power requirement for performing one or more portions of a known workload by said predetermined system, automatically causing a change from a first power state of said predetermined system to a second power state that does not violate a guaranteed deterministically-bounded explicit specification for performing said one or more portions of the expected workload, the specification requiring that the predetermined system will not exceed a user-defined acceptable level of performance loss. 
 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving said specification. 
 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 automatically determining said past power requirement. 
 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 automatically monitoring power utilization for an identified workload. 
 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 automatically transforming information about power utilized when performing an identified workload into a discrete set of workload classes. 
 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 automatically transforming information about power utilized when performing an identified workload into a discrete set of workload classes; and 
 automatically predicting a next workload class from said set of workload classes. 
 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 transforming information about power utilized when performing an identified workload into a discrete set of workload classes; 
 predicting a next workload class from said set of workload classes; and 
 transforming a next workload class into an actual power state. 
 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 transforming information about power utilized when performing an identified workload into a discrete set of workload classes; 
 predicting a next workload class from said set of workload classes; 
 transforming a next workload class into an actual power state; and 
 identifying an amount to modify said actual power state to avoid violating said specification. 
 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 automatically predicting said future power requirement. 
 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 guaranteeing fulfillment of said future power requirement while incurring no greater than a user-specified performance loss. 
 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 automatically fulfilling said future power requirement while incurring no greater than a user-specified performance loss. 
 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 dividing a software process into a plurality of distinct workloads, each of said distinct workloads characterizable by a substantially constant power requirement. 
 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 identifying an available performance slack from an estimate of a current performance loss and an acceptable performance loss. 
 
     
     
       14. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 co-optimizing a chosen power state and a length of a next timestep. 
 
     
     
       15. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 co-optimizing a chosen power state and a magnitude of a next sampling rate. 
 
     
     
       16. The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 said specification identifies a performance loss limit. 
 
     
     
       17. The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 said specification deterministically bounds a user-specified performance loss. 
 
     
     
       18. The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 said power state comprises an operating frequency. 
 
     
     
       19. The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 said power state comprises a operating voltage. 
 
     
     
       20. The method of  claim 1 , wherein:
 said predicted future power requirement is obtained via a Markov model. 
 
     
     
       21. A system comprising:
 a processor adapted for:
 based on a predicted non-zero future power requirement for performing an expected workload by a predetermined system, said predicted future power requirement based on a past power requirement for performing a known workload by said predetermined system, automatically causing a change from a first power state of said predetermined system to a second power state that is sufficient to perform the expected workload, yet that does not violate a guaranteed deterministically-bounded explicit performance specification, the specification requiring that the predetermined system will not exceed a user-defined acceptable level of performance loss. 
 
 
     
     
       22. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising machine-implementable instructions for activities comprising:
 based on a predicted non-zero future power requirement for performing an expected workload by a predetermined system, said predicted future power requirement based on a past power requirement for performing a known workload by said predetermined system, automatically causing a change from a first power state of said predetermined system to a second power state that is sufficient to perform the expected workload, yet that does not violate a guaranteed deterministically-bounded explicit performance specification, the specification requiring that the predetermined system will not exceed a user-defined acceptable level of performance loss. 
 
     
     
       23. A method comprising:
 via a predetermined processor:
 based on a predicted non-zero future power requirement for performing an expected workload by a predetermined system, said predicted future power requirement based on a past power requirement for performing a known workload by said predetermined system, dynamically adaptively controlling a power state of said predetermined system to a level that is sufficient to perform the expected workload yet prevents violation of a guaranteed deterministically-bounded explicit performance specification, the specification requiring that the predetermined system will not exceed a user-defined acceptable level of performance loss.